


In Vain

by aural_stimulatn



Category: DCU, DCU - Comicverse, Gotham Central
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-29
Updated: 2010-12-29
Packaged: 2017-10-14 05:27:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 445
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/145858
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aural_stimulatn/pseuds/aural_stimulatn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bruce Wayne attends the funeral of someone he considered a very dear friend.  This is an alternate ending to the <i>Gotham Central</i> "Half a Life" story.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In Vain

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for the LJ comm "batfic_contest" with the prompt "One Minute"

It was quiet. Even for a funeral, it was eerily, sickeningly quiet in the room.

And his suit was too tight. Particularly, the sleeves of the jacket. Bruce understood that he was focusing on all the wrong things. He couldn’t bring himself to process the scene in front of him--he couldn't deal with the truth of whose funeral he was actually attending.

But the memory came anyway. _One Minute,_ he thought. _Hell, fifteen seconds earlier .... _

He'd attended a lot of funerals in his life. It never got easier. Alfred told him not to blame himself. That never happened either.

When he heard that she was missing, he knew it was Two-Face. When he figured out where they were, he arrived just in time to see them fight for the gun. She was good--she got there first. A matter of seconds as he ran across the room and the door behind her burst open. She tried to turn, but the thug was quick, too. Two shots were in Renee's temple before the batarang knocked the gun out of the thug’s hand.

One minute, and he wouldn’t have had to watch her fall. He wouldn’t have had to see Harvey, his former friend, screaming as he held her body, covered in her blood.

Bruce looked around the room, wanting to see who else showed up to pay respects to one of Gotham's Finest. A throng of cops, mostly MCU. Jim Gordon among them. One young man, _her brother._ A blonde woman, her face red from crying, _Daria_. He moved closer to her before he could stop himself.

"She'll be cleared of all the charges," he offered. She just stared at him. He'd expected as much; he tried again. "I'm sorry for your loss."

Daria dropped her head into her hands, the sounds of her sobs punctuating the silence in the room. He never really did get the hang of how to make people feel better. He wished he could tell her how much he really felt her loss. He wished he could tell her what an ally Renee had been, how irreplaceable she really was. He wished he could tell her he was sorry the way he really meant it.

Instead, he sat with her. Staring ahead at the closed casket, allowing himself a minute to mourn the woman they had lost. A sister who valued family fiercely. A lover, just learning to be herself. A detective whose morals and motives should have never been in question.

He wished he could tell Daria that it gets better with time. But he had felt this loss before, and no, it never got any easier to handle.


End file.
